Passages

No ancient law collection is as well-known today as the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, thanks in part to American politics and cinema as well as, of course, the Bible. The Decalogue exhibits an unmatchable simplicity of expression, making it one of the most memorized passages in the Bible. It is also the most fought-over biblical passage in American civil culture. To display or not to display the Ten Commandments on government property remains a controversial issue in light of the establishment clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Is the Decalogue simply a list of prohibitions?

Popular versions of the Decalogue as found in souvenir shops and front yards are typically stripped-down versions of what is found in the Bible. Look at Exod 20:2-17 (or Deut 5:6-21—the Decalogue appears twice in similar but not identical versions) and you’ll find much more than a list of prohibitions or “thou shalt not” commands. Two of the “commandments” are cast positively (Exod 20:8, Exod 20:12). Whereas the simple form of the prohibition characterizes only the latter “commandments,” the first few are more complex.

Most abbreviated versions of the Decalogue omit the first verse (Exod 20:2) entirely, which is unfortunate as it features God’s self-introduction (“I am the LORD your God . . .”) followed by reference to Israel’s exodus from Egypt. More than an introduction, this opening verse provides the definitive setting for all the “commandments” that follow: the God who has delivered the Israelites from slavery will now deliver to them a set of laws, beginning with the Decalogue. This first verse sets forth the relationship between a liberating deity and a freed people, a relationship of covenant (see Exod 6:7). To omit this opening verse, as most popular versions do, is to rip the commandments from their natural context and to universalize them in a way that goes against their first words.

Several of the Decalogue’s commandments are part carrot, part stick. They feature a God who persuades: Honoring parents leads to a long life “in the land” (Exod 20:12). Israel’s God is described as a “jealous (others: ‘zealous’) God,” ready to punish or to show “steadfast love” (Exod 20:5). Sabbath observance in Exodus is grounded in God’s work of creation: six days of work and the seventh day for rest (Exod 20:9-11). The “Ten Commandments” are thus more than just commandments or ultimatums. They show God’s desire for a relationship and Israel’s choice in obedience. Indeed, the Bible refers to them not as “commandments” at all but more generally as “words” or “sayings” (Hebrewdevarim; Exod 34:28, Deut 4:13, Deut 10:4). Hence, “Decalogue” is a more appropriate name than “Ten Commandments” (deca = ten, logos = word).

Are the Ten Commandments the foundation of western civil law?

No, and for three reasons. The first is that the “commandments” in Exod 20:2-11 (the first three or four commandments, depending on the system of counting) have nothing to do with civil law. They are specifically religious. They prohibit worshiping other gods, manufacturing idols, and illicitly invoking “the name of the LORD” and require the observance of the Sabbath. The remaining “commandments” do deal with communal relations, from honoring parents to prohibiting theft. But because the first group of commandments sets the context for the second, we can see that the Decalogue as a whole, like the rest of the Hebrew Bible, recognizes no separation between “church and state,” that is, between the sacred and the secular.

The second reason is that as foundational as it may seem, the Decalogue is not rigidly fixed in the Bible itself. Another version appears in Deut 5:6-21. Here Moses recounts the giving of the law to a new generation. Moses’s retelling, however, makes one significant revision: the Sabbath commandment in Deuteronomy makes no mention of God’s work of creation as found in the Exodus version. Instead, Deuteronomy grounds the Sabbath commandment in the experience of Israelite slavery in Egypt (Deut 5:15). The opportunity to rest is itself treated as an event of liberation, not only for the Israelites but also for their slaves and livestock (Deut 5:14).

The third reason is that the Decalogue is not the only law collection in the Hebrew Bible. Immediately following its presentation in Exod 20 is a collection of miscellaneous case laws, otherwise known as “the Book of the Covenant” (Exod 20:22–Exod 23:19; for the name, see Exod 24:7), which covers some of the same legal issues found in the Decalogue, and much more. Unlike the “commandments” of the Decalogue, which do not provide punishments and thus are not a law code at all, many of the case laws specify judgment or penalty, from corporal punishment to financial restitution. Finally, the replacement tablets given to Moses after breaking the first set contain a significantly different set of laws (Exod 34:1-28). So even within the Bible, the “Ten Commandments” were never quite set in stone!

The Decalogue contains a well-structured movement from the religious to the civil.

The Decalogue contains much more than simply commandments.

There are three different traditions of numbering the ten "words" (Jewish; Eastern Orthodox and Reformed; Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran). While the first "word" in the Jewish numbering tradition is God's self-presentation in Exod 20:2, the various Christian traditions consider Exod 20:3 to be the beginning of the series.

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A more accurate name for the Ten Commandments, literally translated as the ten words (deka = ten, logos = words).

The first clause of the First Amendment in the United States Constitution, prohibiting the establishment of a state religion.

The first article in the United States Bill of Rights; it prohibits the government from instituting a state religion or infringing on freedom of speech.

migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan

A West Semitic language, in which most of the Hebrew Bible is written except for parts of Daniel and Ezra. Hebrew is regarded as the spoken language of ancient Israel but is largely replaced by Aramaic in the Persian period.

A rule commanding someone not to do something.

Exod 20:2-17

2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;3you shall have no other gods before me.4You shall not make for y ... View more

Deut 5:6-21

6I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;7you shall have no other gods before me.8You shall not make for y ... View more

Exod 20:8

8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.

Exod 20:12

12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exod 20:2

2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

Exod 6:7

7I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians.

Exod 20:12

12Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exod 20:5

5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the ... View more

Exod 20:9-11

9Six days you shall labor and do all your work.10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter ... View more

Exod 34:28

28He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten c ... View more

Deut 4:13

13He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

Deut 10:4

4Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the a ... View more

The set of Biblical books shared by Jews and Christians. A more neutral alternative to "Old Testament."

Relating to or associated with people living in the territory of the northern kingdom of Israel during the divided monarchy, or more broadly describing the biblical descendants of Jacob.

Unrelated to religion.

Exod 20:2-11

2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;3you shall have no other gods before me.4You shall not make for y ... View more

Deut 5:6-21

6I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;7you shall have no other gods before me.8You shall not make for y ... View more

Deut 5:15

15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore th ... View more

Deut 5:14

14But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox o ... View more

Exod 20

The Ten Commandments1Then God spoke all these words:2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;3you shall h ... View more

Exod 20:22

The Law concerning the Altar22The Lord said to Moses: Thus you shall say to the Israelites: “You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven.

Exod 23:19

19The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Exod 24:7

7Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedie ... View more

Exod 34:1-28

Moses Makes New Tablets1The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the form ... View more

Of or belonging to any of several branches of Christianity, especially from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, whose adherents trace their tradition back to the earliest Christian communities. Lowercase ("orthodox"), this term means conforming with the dominant, sanctioned ideas or belief system.

The world's largest Christian church organization administered by hierarchy made up of a single pope and a network of cardinals, bishops, priests, and renunciates (such as nuns and monks).

Exod 20:2-17

2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;3you shall have no other gods before me.4You shall not make for y ... View more

Deut 5:6-21

6I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;7you shall have no other gods before me.8You shall not make for y ... View more

Exod 20:2

2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

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